Irish bar in NYC named World’s Best New Cocktail Bar

Winners Jack McGarry, Conor Allen and Sean Muldoon at the 2013 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in New Orleans.Filip Wolak

An Irish bar in New York was named the World’s Best New Cocktail Bar at the 2013 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in New Orleans.

The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, a tri-level mid-19th century bar in downtown Manhattan, won several awards at the ‘Oscars’ of the spirits and cocktail communities last Saturday night.

The downtown bar is named after the Dead Rabbits gang from the Manhattan's infamous Five Points neighborhood during the Tammany Hall era.

Despite only being open a mere five months, Belfast barmen Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry managed to win three coveted Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans.

The International Bartender of the Year award was won by Jack McGarry, head bartender. McGarry, 24, is the youngest recipient of this award. The downtown bar also walked away with an award for the World’s Best Cocktail Menu.

“We are honored and humbled to receive this level of recognition from Tales of the Cocktail and the cocktail world’s luminaries,” said Sean Muldoon, Creator and General Manager, The Dead Rabbit.

“The Dead Rabbit had been in the works for three years and it was our sole devotion. It was never a sure thing, but together with our owners, operators and management team, we persevered and made it happen. We’re delighted by the embrace of our bartending peers and the public. I’m especially delighted that Jack McGarry won International Bartender of the Year.”

“Receiving the Spirited Awards is a crowning achievement and we are very grateful to Tales of the Cocktail,” said Jack McGarry, Head Bartender and Drinks Program Creator, The Dead Rabbit. “It was a privilege to go back into history to research and recreate drinks from the Golden Age of Cocktails and beyond. We’re proud that our effort has resonated so deeply with the libations cognoscenti.”

The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog is a tri-level mid-19th century style Irish/New York drinking saloon located at 30 Water Street in Lower Manhattan.